Mary Clap Wooster Chapter, NSDAR History
Inspired by a Distinguished Patriot
In 1890, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was organized in Washington, D.C., and soon after, the states began forming chapters. Mary Clap Wooster Chapter, NSDAR, organized on April 21, 1893, was the eighth chapter organized in Connecticut. The organizational meeting took place at the home of Delia F. Audubon Tyler, who lived in a large square brownstone house on College Street near where the current Shubert Theater now stands in New Haven, Connecticut.
The names of the nineteen charter members are:
Elizabeth Foote Jenkins
Lydia Williams Bolles Newcomb
Elizabeth Febiger Beebe
Delia Audubon Tyler
Eugenia L. Morris
Sara T. Kinney
Harriet Oakes Sargent
Evelyn McCurdy Salisbury
Martha Day Porter
Annie Palfrey Day
Idalina Darrow
Elizabeth Selden Easton
Caroline Tuttle Brooks
Clara Lines DeBussy
Catherine Chapman Treat
Nancy A. Morse Foote
Sarah E. Champion
Ellen W. Parmelee Deming
Minutes from first chapter meeting, April 21, 1893
Mary Clap Wooster Charter, NSDAR, 1893
May 16, 1894 program
Photos courtesy of the New Haven Museum.
The New Haven Chapter, NSDAR was organized due largely to the effort of Lydia Williams Bolles Newcomb, who was already a member of the NSDAR. Assisted by Sara T. Kinney, they interviewed their personal friends and secured the minimum number of members to form a chapter.
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To name a Chapter is sometimes a delicate, as well as a difficult achievement, but I do not recall any embarrassments in connection with the selection of a Patron Saint for this Chapter. How could any name be suggested other than that of Mary Clap Wooster? Mary Clap, daughter of the fourth President of Yale College and direct descendant on both the paternal and maternal lines from Mayflower passengers, William Bradford and John Howland. Mary Clap Wooster, wife of Connecticut’s Major-General David Wooster, as great a patriot in her way as he in his. Mary Clap Wooster, who gave her husband and her fortune to her country, and lost both. - Sarah T. Kinney
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By the time the first chapter meeting took place on October 9, 1893, seventy-one ladies had become members. Meetings were held bi-monthly at the homes of members for the first few months, after which meetings were held in the Director’s Room of the New Haven Historical Society.
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Meetings were held at the Historical Society, by invitation of the Governor's Foot Guard, Second Company, and the chapter accepted the opportunity. When the room was outgrown, future meetings took place at the Center Church House on the town green and were held on the second Monday of each month from October to May.
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Connecticut was the first state to hold a state conference at the Church of the Redeemer on May 16, 1894. The Mary Clap Wooster Chapter, NSDAR was given the honor of being the hostess chapter.
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When Mary Clap Wooster Chapter, NSDAR was formed, seven chapters in Connecticut were already in existence: Danbury, Hartford, Meriden, Middletown, New London, Norwalk, and Waterbury. In 1894, there were fifty-two chapters in the country.
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The charter of Mary Clap Wooster Chapter, NSDAR was granted on October 04, 1893. Carved by Elizabeth Sheldon Tillinghast, a portion of the charter’s wooden frame is wood removed from an old oak beam from the Wooster house, including a few hand-wrought nails from that beam. The leaves in the corners are pieces of the Charter Oak.